One-man concert against high gas prices draws a crowd, and the police

Jay Weinberg struck a chord with drivers when he staged an unauthorized concert on the roof of a gas station in northwest Indiana to protest high fuel prices. Armed with a guitar and megaphone, he crooned about feeling pain at the pump before a growing crowd below.

Last week's stunt got him arrested, but his catchy tune caught fire and turned the musician into a local hero overnight for saying, or rather singing, what is on everyone's mind.

"The $4 mark is the breaking point," he said. "People are really upset."

Weinberg, 29, of Valparaiso has been strumming his ditty "Price Gouge'n" on Chicago radio stations, and the story has been picked up around the country and by The Times of India. (Yes, India, not Indiana.) The lyrics have been met with laughter and righteous head nods when he sings, "I can't afford it, I'm banging on my dashboard, I can't believe they think I'm a fool."

Protests are cropping up around the country as frustration over gas prices grows. A truck driver stood by a Louisville expressway with a sign objecting to diesel costs. The owner of a Milwaukee-area gas station closed for 24 hours to protest prices last month, and a lawn-care company in Tennessee organized a rally outside its business last week. Hundreds of truck drivers protested at the U.S. Capitol, and gas prices have become an issue in the presidential campaign.

That was part of the reason Weinberg took his protest song public May 5 at a convenience store in Valparaiso. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were in his area campaigning, and he wanted them to take notice.

A YouTube video of his protest shows cars honking as Weinberg asks from the megaphone, "Are you sick of these gas prices?" A woman holding a young girl stops to watch, and people hold up fists in the air in solidarity as they walk by with a dog.

Weinberg proclaimed he would not come down until prices came down, but that was not to be. He expected police would arrest him but knew they would have a difficult time reaching him atop the roof.

"I thought, 'What if I get on top of the canopy where they can't get to me? Then I've got a little bit of time to really say some stuff. They'd have to send firetrucks to get to me.'"

Turns out that is exactly what they did. They brought Weinberg down using a fire ladder, said Valparaiso Police Sgt. Mike Grennes.

"When we arrived, there was a crowd of about 40 people," Grennes said without a hint of amusement.

"They were singing a song about the high price of gas."

Weinberg was charged with criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct by Porter County authorities and bonded out by a friend. His court date is in June.

Carl Cohen, a philosophy professor at the University of Michigan, said the mini-concert was an act of civil disobedience, a topic he wrote a book about during the Vietnam War.

It's rare for such protests to target economic problems because the culprit is often vague, but in this case it was easy to lay blame on oil companies, he said.

"What is most interesting about this case, I would say, is the inventive way he devised to express the protest -- singing from on high," Cohen said.

Weinberg is the first to admit the hoopla was a great way to get his name out as a recording artist. He spent 30 hours in the studio recording the tune, which can be downloaded online for 37 cents.

But he sees the spectacle as a form of civil disobedience in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi.

"I'm not saying what I'm doing is as important as those guys, but they talk about unjust laws. Well, this is pretty unjust," he said.

Weinberg took a break from his day job at a framing shop to hit the road for interviews about his arrest. Along the way, he saw the range of gas prices in Illinois and Indiana and had to top off the tank for $3.89 a gallon.

"I'm hoping this song can be an anthem," he said. "It's something I've felt personally. It's something resonating with people's minds and hearts, and most importantly in their wallets."